2014 Blog Project: Week 24

One of those great words that can be both a noun and a verb, which gives me a huge range of directions to go with my picture! But even with all the different ways I could have gone, within a minute of pulling this card I knew exactly where I was going to go with it and what to photograph.

Before there were smart phones, before there was the internet with Google Maps, before there were mass produced maps and GPS units -- people knew how to get around. They were to navigate complicated trails and large oceans greater than they could have imagined. (Ok sometimes things didn't work so well like in Columbus' case but still, pretty gosh darn impressive.) How? They used the sky and billions of stars. These enormous balls of burning gas many light years away helped guide our ancestors through the forests and desserts.

They didn't just guide them to destinations by pointing which way was north, they also helped them know when to plant and harvest crops and when to prepare for colder weather. Depending on which constellations they could see in the sky helped them navigate their seasons.

The constellations also provided stories for their children on life lesions, guiding them through proper behavior and cultural warnings.

These gas beings light years away guided our ancestors in almost every aspect of their lives, ways that we now take for granted. We currently have the technology to see farther into space than we can even fathom, but how often to you look up at the original true guides?